Sydney council stares down protest in push for synthetic football field

A newly elected northern Sydney mayor is vowing to push ahead with a $24.4 million synthetic field development despite community opposition that briefly disrupted a council meeting about the project. Ku-ring-gai Council's upgrade of Norman Griffiths Oval has ballooned from its original $3.3 million price tag in 2021 and has been beset by cost blowouts relating to contractor disputes and changes to the field's stormwater detention. On Monday evening, council held an extraordinary meeting and voted to scrap community consultation on whether to choose synthetic or natural turf for the field, which had been agreed to at council's regular September meeting one week ago. The majority of councillors also voted to progress with the $24.4 million synthetic option. Protesters put tape on their mouths to demonstrate that they were being silenced. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)Ku-ring-gai Mayor Kim Wheatley, who was elected to the position by fellow councillors last week, said she did not think it was money well spent, but the field needed to be completed."It's been sitting there idle for two years. It's costing ratepayers a considerable amount of money per month," Cr Wheatley told 702 ABC Sydney. "I came in with a can-do attitude that we needed to do things, and that's what I'm doing."A NSW Public Works report said the natural turf option would have cost council at least $24.2 million, while synthetic would cost $24.4 million. In the meantime, it has cost council an average of $60,000 a month to maintain the construction site since council repossessed it from the contractor in May last year.The crowd walked out of the meeting, briefly disrupting proceedings. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)About 100 protesters attended the meeting, holding signs outside the chamber and taping their mouths to symbolise "being silenced" by the cancelled consultation and not having a public forum before Monday evening.The crowd left the chamber just before the vote to demonstrate their opposition, disrupting the meeting for a short time. Public policy specialist and critic of the project Bron Hanna said the council's decision to forgo the consultation was "deeply undemocratic". "Council had previously stated they don't have a mandate to spend $20 million, let alone $25 million, on a single suburban soccer field without community consultation," Ms Hanna said, referring to a May council resolution. "What's the council's mandate to go ahead?"Council admitted they had to abort the work they've spent three years doing because of a lack of due diligence on their part. That's why the delay is because of incompetence, not because of inaction." The project will build a synthetic playing surface, council decided at a meeting this week. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)However, Cr Wheatley said plenty of community consultation had already been done, citing 17 public forums and 373 speakers who had spoken about the project over the last few years. "I understand that there are community concerns," Cr Wheatley said. "At the end of the day, it's a democracy. Everyone's allowed to have an opinion."Unfortunately, you know, on this occasion, the synthetic turf has won. There have been more councillors that have wanted it."The synthetic field has received support from the local football club West Pymble FC, which backed it because of the NSW Public Report's suggestion that it would be able to withstand more players per week than a natural turf field.West Pymble Football Club has been unable to use its home ground and clubhouse for four years. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)Ms Hanna questioned this suggestion in the report, which stated Norman Grifftihs would only be able to host 25 hours of play a week with natural turf.She said at least 29 natural turf fields in the Ku-ring-gai area host 25 hours of play per week, according to documents obtained through a Government Information Public Access (GIPA) request. The project will be delivered by NSW Public Works and be funded by the council's internal reserves. According to the NSW Public Works report, construction of the synthetic field would take place from March next year until February 2028. As well as the field, the upgrade includes improved lighting, fencing, pathways and a new electronic scoreboard.